Some embodiments described herein relate generally to methods and apparatus for pairing wireless devices. More specifically, the embodiments described herein relate to pairing a wireless electronic pen or stylus device to an electronic host device such as an electronic tablet.
Wireless devices often use secure bonded pairs to facilitate one-to-one communication. Known methods for pairing wireless devices typically use propagating signals, e.g., electromagnetic radio signals, to exchange data for the pairing event. For example, several wireless communication standards such as Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE) 802.11b/g specify mechanisms for wireless device pairing. Such known methods, however, have shortcomings in providing wireless device pairing. Such pairing methods can involve a user to input (or type) a series of symbols such as, for example, a personal identification number (PIN) code, and hexadecimal or American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) characters for IEEE's 802.11b's Wireless Equivalent Privacy (WEP) protocol, to validate that a first wireless device is securely pairing with a targeted second wireless device. Such pairing methods, however, are cumbersome to the user and are incompatible in devices that have no keypad, display medium, graphical user interface (GUI), and/or the like.
Out-of-band communication (OOB) is a mode of communication between wireless devices that is not through the primary wireless communication channel. Wireless devices often use OOB to authenticate a pairing attempt without codes and/or keys such as, for example, using short range near-field (NF) communication radios to confirm that devices are in close proximity. The use of OOB communications, however, often involves complex and heavy computations and can result in pairing delays. Additionally, OOB communications also often involve use of an extra radio transceiver on both wireless devices, thus adding extra complexity and expense to the device manufacture.
Accordingly, a need exists for methods and apparatus for implementing automatic wireless pairing between wireless devices using out-of-band communication without the need for extra transceivers and user input of security credentials.